Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017426
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017426
Covering an area of about 2 hectares, this truly impressive earthwork is the most extensive motte-and-bailey castle in Scotland. Only perhaps from the air can one appreciate its great size, looking for all the world like some great earthen battleship stranded on the alluvial river plain. Its position in the valley is not especially commanding; it may originally have been an island, but the river now flows in a single channel to the east. Close up, its deep outer ditch puts one in mind of an iron-age hillfort, and it is possible that the bailey was developed out of an existing fortification in Anglo-Norman times.
The lower slopes have been artifIcially scarped on the north and east. A 15m-wide ditch surrounds the entire work, and is bridged by causeways in the south-eastern and north-western sectors. Low counter scarp banks can be seen around the lips of this ditch, and the enclosure thus formed is about 150m in maximum length. The motte itself, set within its own ditch,occupies most of the southern end of the enclosure; it rises in the usual 'pudding' or truncated cone form to a sub-circular summit area. Archaeological excavation of part of the motte top showed that the upper 1.83m had been added following the destruction by fire of 12th century timber buildings and palisades; coins and pottery in the upper levels indicated that occupation had continued into the 14th century.
The earliest available records show the lordship of Urr in the possession of Walter de Berkeley (d. c 1194), chamberlain of William I. From him it passed by marriage to a cadet branch of the Balliols, the main line of that family later occupying nearby Buittle Castle. Two witnesses to a Balliol of Urr charter of 1262 were described as burgesses of Urr, but where this burgh settlement was located, whether inside or outside the bailey, and how long it lasted, are not known.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
